290

REPORTS AND PUBLIC LETTERS.

THE ADDRESS.

We, whose names are hereunto annexed, address you indischarge of what we believe to be a solemn duty, on themost important subject ever presented for your consideration.We allude to the conflict between the two great sections ofthe Union, growing out of a difference of feeling and opinionin reference to the relation existing between the two races,the European and African, which inhabit the southern sec-tion, and the acts of aggression and encroachment to whichit has led.

The conflict commenced not long after the acknowledg-ment of our independence, and has gradually increased untilit has arrayed the great body of the North against the Southon this most vital subject. In the progress of this conflict,aggression has followed aggression, and encroachment en-croachment, until they have reached a point when a regardfor your peace and safety will not permit us to remain longersilent. The object of this address is to give you a clear,correct, but brief account of the whole series of aggressionand encroachments on your rights, with a statement of thedangers to which they expose you. Our object in making itis not to cause excitement, but to put you in full possessionof all the facts and circumstances necessary to a full and justconception of a deep-seated disease, which threatens greatdanger to you and the whole body politic. We act on theimpression, that in a popular government like ours, a trueconception of the actual character and state of a disease isindispensable to effecting a cure.

We have made it a joint address, because we believethat the magnitude of the subject required that it should as-sume the most impressive and solemn form.

Not to go further back, the difference of opinion and feel-ing in reference to the relation between the two races,disclosed itself in the Convention that framed the Constitu-